Grants for Business Owners

If you are looking for grants for business owners, try to look for private organizations or institutions that will award that kind of assistance. You would not find any grants like that in the federal government; however, the federal government offers business loans for business owners. There is a huge difference between grants and loans. The major difference is that there is no need to make repayments for grants whereas you need to pay back the amount you borrow in a loan plus interests.

Small Business Innovation Research

The U.S. Small Business Administration or SBA is not offering grants for the start up or expansion of small businesses, but these can be allowed when you enter in its loan programs. There are grants for business owners offered by the SBA; however, these are in general intended for the expansion and enhancement of the organizations that will give small business assistance in terms of financial, management or technical. The grants are usually open for non-profit institutions and organizations, state and local agencies or governments. Majority of the grants by SBA are used for particular researches, services and programs. One of the known federal grants for business owners is the Small Business Innovation Research or SBIR program. As stated earlier, this grant is intended for research and development (R&D) and not for business related things such as marketing, start up costs and so on. You can visit sba.gov if you are interested with the projects of SBIR that are linked to other government agencies.

Amber Grants

The Amber Grants is offered to small business owners particularly the females. The Amber grants are supporting women who will venture in the world of business by assisting them in the start up expenses of a small business. The grant also will fund home based business as well as online business. The amount of the cash grants ranges from $500 up to the maximum of $1,000. Aside from the start up expenses, the cash grant can also be uses for upgrading necessary equipments for the business, purchasing of materials to start a home based business or paying for a website for online business. For the year 2011, the deadline for application will be on the 30th of April, 2011. The recipient of this grant will be announced and notified after one week through email after the application due date. Applications can be completed online by going directly to this website: http://www.womensnet.net/ApplyForAmberGrants.aspx. For more details, visit www.womensnet.net.